Details

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What is your position within your company?
Since retiring from the roofing industry, I have worked as an educator, columnist and freelance writer. I also co-authored, with consulting engineer Bill Griffin, the fourth edition of the Manual of Low-Slope Roof Systems published by McGraw-Hill.

What is the most unusual roofing project of which you have been a part?
Installing an early single-ply roof system using polyisobutylene membrane over cement-asbestos roof panels

How did you become involved in the roofing industry?
I worked for Johns Manville, Denver, as a research and development chemist and joined its roofing research group in 1965.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would go back to London. My wife, Anita, and I are Anglophiles, and we travel to England whenever we can.

What do you consider a waste of time?
Prolonged board meetings with vague objectives

What have been your most rewarding experiences?
Developing The Roofing Industry Educational Institute, meeting the cream of the crop in the industry and being associated with so many experts who have so much knowledge to contribute

What qualities do you most like in a person?
Honesty, knowledge and a willingness to share

What is your biggest pet peeve?
My incompetence in the digital world

What is one extravagance you allow yourself?
A MAD magazine subscription

People would be surprised to know …
I hate crowds.

What is your favorite book?
Centennial by James Michener

What is one lesson you learned as a child that has stuck with you?
Control your temper—I'm still trying

If you could go back in time, what era would you visit? Why?
I would go back to the 1960s with the challenge of bringing all those single-ply and polymer-modified bitumen roof systems to fruition.

What is the most challenging aspect of your professional life?
Meeting deadlines

What is your current roofing industry involvement?
I serve on NRCA's National Roofing Council. I also am a member of ASTM International, RCI Inc., SPRI, FM Global, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues Inc., the Metal Roofing Contractors Association and Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association.